Retirements

Retirement at Manned Checkpoints

Each manned checkpoint is accessible via a vehicle or boat and at these locations, it is possible for participants to retire into the immediate care of our event team, and if road-based there will be a vehicle present. At each manned checkpoint, we will be providing emergency support and it will be possible to summon a medic to these locations based on the medical teams’ priorities and your immediate needs. Some of the manned checkpoint locations are very remote and participants should be aware that it may take the best part of a day to catch up with the event (and your personal kit) should you retire.

Retirement Elsewhere

Participants who retire at other locations along the route will likely face considerable difficulty and a very long walk to reach the nearest road or civilisation. Every effort will be made to collect retiring participants once they have reached a public road. However, this is not guaranteed and is dependent on the organiser's available resources. Retiring participants may need to arrange a private taxi to collect them at their own expense. It may be possible to hitch-hike.

It is important to note that early each morning the event team leaves the previous overnight camp to move to the next one, and so retiring backwards along the route is likely to result in a long wait for collection. Retiring forwards along the route brings you closer to both the next overnight camp and assistance. We appreciate that circumstances may dictate your decisions though, and we will be monitoring all participants' trackers. It is a good idea to contact race control with your plans if possible.

IMPORTANT - please consider:

1. Our event logistic steadily progresses north each day.

2. The geography of North-West Scotland and the route is truncated by numerous long glens, and the road network is somewhat limited – it can be 50 miles of road travel just to get to ‘the other side of the mountain’.

3. Therefore, if you are aiming or needing to retire during the day stage, then we would generally ask that you push onwards, for rescue on the ‘other side’ of a remote stage. Examination of the map (at atlas scale) might reveal other off-route options, but in general, we would ask you to stay on-route, moving forwards. As a last resort, you might reverse out from any stage, and also as a last resort, you might depart from the route and take an alternative escape route. You can imagine that the latter options are potentially more hazardous, though if there are good communications, agreement and contingency, these may be possible for us to interact with. If there is an incident/injury/health concern or worrying weather, then these will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Leaving the Event

Participants retiring at the overnight camp and wishing to leave the race will be transported when possible to (or at minimum given assistance to get to) the nearest local transportation hub (bus stop or train station) the same or the following day.

Stay with the event by swapping to the Cape Wrath Explorer

Not everyone starting the Cape Wrath Ultra® will complete the course, but we still want to give the best experience possible to those participants not making a checkpoint or course closure time cut-off without compromising the complex logistics required for the runners still taking part competitively in the full race.

A participant who fails to complete a day of the Cape Wrath Ultra® (i.e. arrives at a checkpoint after the cut-off time, arrives at the finish after the course closure time, or decides to withdraw from that day's course) will be allowed to continue in the event by swapping to the Cape Wrath Explorer and would be eligible for the Explorer memento if they meet the criteria and make it to Cape Wrath on day 8.